Been looking around for some good hamburger recipes, but without a whole lot of success. I've found some good tips, though. Thought I'd share some of what I've found before it's too cold to BBQ anymore:

1) Use ground beef chuck, which is about 20% fat (ground beef tends to be near the 30% range). And all this time I've just been using ground beef...

2) Know what part of the animal your meat comes from. Different parts will bring different textures, fat quantities, etc.

3) If you can't find ground beef chuck, buy your beef chuck and simply ask your butcher to coarse grind it for you. One of my buddies insists it's best to grind your own meat because then you can cook it less without worrying about food poisoning/contamination. I think that's a little over the top and I don't have time and energy for that when grilling for such a large group (football parties) anyway.

4) I recently learned from watching some show on the Food Network a while ago (don't recall what the show was. Some guy was on it, though), that if you handle your meat too much it can melt the fat and make the patty too dense (not good. That'll leave your burger too dry).

5) Don't press too hard on patties when cooking. This just pushes out the fat you want to keep in to help keep them moist. In fact, avoid pushing on them at all if you can.

Any other tips my fellow BBQ-ers are aware of? I'd also like to find some good hamburger recipes, if you know of any, so please share. I'm really hoping to ditch the mediocre burgers with this weekend's football parties.

"moister" hamburgers are those with more fat, so
"Use ground beef chuck, which is about 20% fat (ground beef tends to be near the 30% range). And all this time I've just been using ground beef..."
is a problem.

next, your local supermarket probably has ground beef in various grades from 10% to 30% fat content.

then again, I would not quibble iwth the idea of having a nice chuck roast ground up.

Been looking around for some good hamburger recipes, but without a whole lot of success. I've found some good tips, though. Thought I'd share some of what I've found before it's too cold to BBQ anymore:

1) Use ground beef chuck, which is about 20% fat (ground beef tends to be near the 30% range). And all this time I've just been using ground beef...

2) Know what part of the animal your meat comes from. Different parts will bring different textures, fat quantities, etc.

3) If you can't find ground beef chuck, buy your beef chuck and simply ask your butcher to coarse grind it for you. One of my buddies insists it's best to grind your own meat because then you can cook it less without worrying about food poisoning/contamination. I think that's a little over the top and I don't have time and energy for that when grilling for such a large group (football parties) anyway.

4) I recently learned from watching some show on the Food Network a while ago (don't recall what the show was. Some guy was on it, though), that if you handle your meat too much it can melt the fat and make the patty too dense (not good. That'll leave your burger too dry).

5) Don't press too hard on patties when cooking. This just pushes out the fat you want to keep in to help keep them moist. In fact, avoid pushing on them at all if you can.

Any other tips my fellow BBQ-ers are aware of? I'd also like to find some good hamburger recipes, if you know of any, so please share. I'm really hoping to ditch the mediocre burgers with this weekend's football parties.

Hi! First off, the myth of not pressing on your meat so it doesn't squeeze out juices is just that, a myth. Of course you don't want to take your spatula and press the bejeezus out of your patty, but if you use a bacon press or similar, you'll get a nice even browning that can't be reproduced by just letting it sit there. In fact, a local chef here in the San Francisco Bay Area just released his own presses. They're stackable so you can adjust the weight for the cut of meat. It's especially good for pork chops of any cut, perfectly browned meat from side to side.

It's not so much that you're handling the meat and melting the fat when you press your patty, it's the fact that you're condensing it and removing the fluffy air that the grinder put in. Patties don't take so long to form that you actually melt anything that much. Julia Child talked about this a few times in the past, that's where I'm getting this information from.

If you're really in to the patty making, you do actually need to get your own grinder and try doing a tri-tip beef roast or a London Broil. Grind in to it either bacon and/or fresh chile peppers. A tri-tip beef burger with jalapenos and bacon will leave your crew begging for more. Oh yes!

Been looking around for some good hamburger recipes, but without a whole lot of success. I've found some good tips, though. Thought I'd share some of what I've found before it's too cold to BBQ anymore:

1) Use ground beef chuck, which is about 20% fat (ground beef tends to be near the 30% range). And all this time I've just been using ground beef...

2) Know what part of the animal your meat comes from. Different parts will bring different textures, fat quantities, etc.

3) If you can't find ground beef chuck, buy your beef chuck and simply ask your butcher to coarse grind it for you. One of my buddies insists it's best to grind your own meat because then you can cook it less without worrying about food poisoning/contamination. I think that's a little over the top and I don't have time and energy for that when grilling for such a large group (football parties) anyway.

4) I recently learned from watching some show on the Food Network a while ago (don't recall what the show was. Some guy was on it, though), that if you handle your meat too much it can melt the fat and make the patty too dense (not good. That'll leave your burger too dry).

5) Don't press too hard on patties when cooking. This just pushes out the fat you want to keep in to help keep them moist. In fact, avoid pushing on them at all if you can.

Any other tips my fellow BBQ-ers are aware of? I'd also like to find some good hamburger recipes, if you know of any, so please share. I'm really hoping to ditch the mediocre burgers with this weekend's football parties.

Found it! Chef Bruce Hill is the one I'm remembering with the presses for the meat. Here:

4 hamburger buns
This is one of my favorite Hamburger Recipes (yeah I have a lot of them...) Plus it's fairly easy (most things come prepared in a can) The only thing is you have to be careful when multiplying it up. (It serves only four) or you end up making the same recipes over and over again.

1. Grill or pan fry ground beef patties until no longer pink and the juices run clear.
2. Combine mustard and horseradish to make spread.
3. Toast bread slices. Spread 2 tsp. of spread on four bread slices. Top with a lettuce leaf, a beef patty, a slice of cheese, 3/4-ounce red and 3/4-ounce green apple slices and 2 tsp. almonds.

ah, but cooking under a weight is different than smashing the thing half way through and making the juice run out.

I agree completely. If you cook the burger with the press on it from the start, you won't squeeze out any fat or flavor, you'll just be keeping the nice flat round shape and the entire patty in contact with the heat. Squeezing it after it is half cooked will render the fat out onto the coals.

I have to agree with you on that one. Those looked very very good. And, whenever I do burgers for game nights, if they're somewhat small, I use the hamburger recipes here for BBQ mushroom burgers, they are delicious.

Have you considered Bison burgers? They are sooo very good. Bison is excellent all around, it's much better for you than beef & has 3 times the omega 3s that salmon does. Other good point, it doesn't matter how much you cook it or not as compared to beef, and actually the rawer they are the better.

I used to grill Bison burgers when I lived in Texas, we would add this pepper jelly a friends mom made. I can't explain how delicious this combination was but dang if I'm not going to cook a trip back to Austin soon thinking about them. Yum!